Women's football in Scotland : an interpretive analysis

Abstract

The growing body of literature on women's football has focused mainly on the development of the game and experiences of past and present players. Despite the emergence of research on women's football internationally there has not yet been exclusive attention to either of these areas in the Scottish context. Using an interpretive framework this thesis is organised around four main themes: the development of women's football in Scotland; socio-demographic characteristics of women footballers; the process of socialisation; and, the subculture of women's football. The synthesis of elements within the interpretive framework ensures that the research offers an interpretation that is both contextualised historically and informed by an understanding of the meaning of football in the context of players' private lives. In relation to the history of the game, the development of women's football in Scotland has indeed been shaped by the particular Scottish context. The research concludes that the socialisation of women into football in Scotland is an interactive and often a reciprocal process. The subculture of women's football in Scotland is characterised by three interlocking group cultures. The meaning of football in players' lives influences the nature of their individual membership to these group cultures and the importance they attach to elements of subcultural capital. The various meanings attached to football give rise to potential sources of tension between the dominant, emergent and residual elements of culture within the subculture. This original theoretically and empirically informed study of women's football in Scotland makes a contribution to the growing body of research on women's football and to our understanding of the social and historical significance of sport in Scottish society.